Uncanny Spider-Man is a 2023 comic book limited series from Marvel Comics by Si Spurrier and Lee Garbett.
The series, set in the shared Marvel Universe, is part of the wider X-Men franchise and the Krakoan Age saga running through those books. It follows on from the 2023 Hellfire Gala special, which launched the new Fall of X arc.
In the aftermath of the Hellfire Gala, Nightcrawler returns to New York with a new wall-crawling identity.
The X-Men Blue: Origins one-shot, published between issues #4 and #5, provides an updated origin story for Kurt and is effectively part of this series.
Uncanny Spider-Man provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Supplementary notes by Dr. Nemesis reveal that Mystique's abilities go beyond merely changing shape, but actually shifting her genetic structure. It's unclear if she can mimic the x-gene of other mutants with this ability, and thus is capable of Power Copying, as she has never tried and refuses testing. Apparently by mimicking Azazel she got close enough for Kurt at least to inherit identical abilities to his.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Played for Laughs. When Peter asks if Kurt's astral cutlass is "a mutant thing", Kurt off-handedly describes its origins as his innate optimism weaponized by his evil sorceress adoptive mother. After a beat, Peter continues referring to it as mutant stuff.
- Atrocious Alias: Spinnenmann (German for spider-man), Kurt's first attempt at a wall-crawler identity, is derided by the homeless people he announces it to. We later see an internet forum discussing alternative names like Devil-Spider and Hellcrawler.
- Bait-and-Switch: Ultimately Silver Sable helps Nightcrawler infiltrate the Orchis base by having Mystique pose as her son while Nightcrawler is disguised as one of Sable's guards.
- Brainwashed and Crazy:
- Vulture uses Warlock to brainwash mutants like Feral, Cloak and Dagger into serving as Hounds.
- Rhino is on a more primitive control leash to act as a precision-guided wrecking ball.
- Supplementary notes state Orchis hypnotically swayed Vulture to their cause, as Toomes doesn't harbor any malice towards mutants specifically. They sunk their hooks in by bringing up how mutants "hoarded" their technology and immortality.
- The Bus Came Back: Issue #3 reveals the return of Warlock, who is being used by Vulture to control a new version of the Hounds.
- Chick Magnet: Silver is instantly drawn to Kurt after meeting him, kissing him when given the chance and assuming he's releasing some kind of pheromone rather than admit she just really liked him and did it due to her attraction.
- Clear My Name: Part of Kurt's time as Spider-Man is focused on finding a way to prove he was under mind control when he committed his previous crimes (although part of him acknowledges that people will still hate him for being a mutant even if he proves he didn't do that of his own free will).
- Dark Is Not Evil: As Spider-Man, Kurt wears a primarily black costume with a red spider on it. Apparently, it’s a modified Spider-Costume Peter had in spare.
- Dating Catwoman: Kurt and Silver Sable's relationship is this from both perspectives, as Sable is officially hunting Kurt and Nightcrawler is on the run from her team, but as far as Silver's concerned, what they do when she's "off the clock" is another matter. Sable eventually twists the terms of her contract to bring in Nightcrawler, by bringing him in and then helping him bring down Vulture's operation. They're still dating by the end of the miniseries.
- Dramatic Irony: Anti-mutant sentiment is at an all time high and people Kurt saves casually express prejudice against mutants right in front of him.
- Fantastic Racism: Played with;
- People Kurt interact with while he's in costume casually express anti-mutant sentiments and praise Orchis, while also praising him even though as far as they can tell he's a demonically empowered Spider-Man. To reiterate, mutants are now looked down on worse than demons.
- Spider-Man is subject to this when an Orchis-programmed Stark Sentinel falsely identifies Spider-Man as a mutant to stir public sentiment up against him.
- Heroic Safe Mode: It eventually becomes clear that, clearing his name aside, Kurt is so burnt out from his recent Trauma Conga Line that being a Spider-Man is just an escape for him from all the persecution of being a mutant that's been following him his entire life. Essentially everyone that figures it out calls him out on it.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Mystique's relationship with Azazel is revealed to have actually been this. She was never interested in him, and only slept with him at Destiny's urging. She was all too eager to break things off as the first person to ever actually rebuff him, which she recounts drove him to tears in-between his blustering.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Peter describes this as part of Kurt's plan as Spider-Man.
- Homosexual Reproduction: Nightcrawler is revealed to actually be the biological child of Mystique and Destiny, carried and delivered by Destiny and conceived by way of Mystique mimicking a genetically male form that copied traits of Azazel and Christian Wagner.
- I Am What I Am: With the immediate threat of Orchis dealt with and his name cleared, Kurt abandons his identity as the other Spider-Man to continue as himself, although Spider-Man assures him in turn that he's welcome to adopt the mask again in future if he needs to feel connected to the people again.
- Irony: Azazel is a demonic looking mutant that seduced and slept around with many women to sire children. Mystique slept with him only to copy his genes to conceive a child with Destiny, much like the legend of the demonic succubus turning into an incubus after sleeping with men to use their semen to sire more demons with unsuspecting women.
- Jerkass Has a Point: During the final clash with Toomes, Nightcrawler affirms that Toomes does have reason to be angry about mutants hoarding their resurrection technology, and affirms that they should have done better.
- Lampshade Hanging: Kurt's costume is supposedly an old costume of Peter's, which makes the way it accommodates his ears, digits, and tail nonsensical. Peter tries to ask how that works but is interrupted.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The in-universe Spider-Man fan forums evoke out-of-universe comic book reader reactions.
- Legacy Character: Kurt takes up the legacy of Spider-Man, with a new costume to go along with it.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: In the final issue, Mystique tells Sable that she suspects Kurt likes her because both women are alike. They're both pragmatic, dangerous women who are very fond of their pistols.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Kurt and Silver Sable have sex on a rooftop in Issue #3.
- Mortality Phobia: Vulture is back as a new Director in Orchis and in his tirade against mutants he emphasizes a particular grievance that Krakoa kept resurrection to themselves. It's heavily implied he joined up with Orchis to experiment on their samples of the Technarchy virus to achieve some form of immortality. The character has struggled with old age problems and mortality for decades, since he was already an old man in his debut appearance. Several of his past plans were either attempts to extend his lifespan or attempts at rejuvenation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mystique is horrified when she realizes her mind compensated for the holes in her memories after Xavier altered them by leaving her to believe she abandoned Kurt as a baby to save her own skin, which led to her spending years resenting him when the truth is she loved him dearly and didn't want to give him up.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A minor version for Orchis, but when a Stark Sentinel falsely identifies Spider-Man as a mutant to stir up public sentiment against him, this ensures that Spider-Man, an experienced hero used to prevailing against impossible odds, will take a more official side in the mutants' struggle against Orchis.
- Not Good with Rejection: Mystique recalls Azazel was a mess when she dumped him, as possibly the first time he'd ever been dumped by anyone. He tried to sound like he didn't care, but Mystique mentions he was sobbing in-between his rants.
- Not Quite Dead: Mystique seemingly fell to her death at the Hellfire Gala. Kurt learns in the first issue that she survived, albeit seemingly with some brain damage.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Throughout the run, Nightcrawler talks to a ghostly chibi version of himself. The last issue reveals that this companion is actually one of Legion's personalities.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mystique was so enraged when she realized Destiny wanted to conceive Kurt out of love and an attempt to preemptively stop Azazel from becoming a bigger threat in the future that she started strangling her, screaming "MY SON! IS NOT! A TOOL! OF FATE!"
- Pointy Ears: Kurt's mask as Spider-Man has these to account for his ears.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Orchis actually invoke this when recalling their threat to kill ten baseline humans for every mutant still on Earth. Without being sure the new Spider-Man is Nightcrawler they can't put that threat into action, particularly since there's a possibility Kurt is unaware of that particular threat as he wasn't on Krakoa during their assault. Even without these issues, Orchis's experts calculate only a 65% chance that Kurt would turn himself in if Orchis killed ten people and then found a way to make him aware of their threat.
- The Reveal: X-Men Blue reveals a couple of things.
- First is that Kurt is not Azazel’s son. He is the son of Mystique and Destiny with Destiny being the one who carried him to term. Mystique’s ability is not just shapeshifting but Gene shifting and she can morph into people on a genetic level, albeit without their powers. This includes having the genetic structure of a male, technically making her Kurt’s biological father. The reason Kurt looks like Azazel is because Mystique had morphed into Azazel when conceiving Kurt.
- Second is that Mystique originally loved Kurt and did not throw him off a cliff, but had lost him when fleeing the Wagner estate. Charles helped erased their memory of Kurt, but left Mystique to remember that she was his parent but made her think she hated and abandoned Kurt.
- Thirdly is that Kurt was conceived out of love but also because Destiny foresaw that he would avert many futures where she and Mystique both die, including one where Azazel succeeded in his rise to power.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In his role as the new Spider-Man, Kurt is set to face Adrian Toomes/the Vulture, who is now working as a director of a division of Orchis, faces Rhino under Orchis's control, and is being hunted by Silver Sable (although she appears to be aware that he and other mutants aren't legitimate threats).
- Secret Identity: After being accused of murder in Legion of X, Kurt has started wearing a mask as Spider-Man to hide who he is. Given his distinct physiology and power set, Orchis identify him the very first time they get footage of him, and forum-goers only dismiss a guess that it's Kurt based on the assumption Orchis wouldn't let a mutant into New York.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: The Spider-Man fan forum page contains multiple complaints about the glut of Spider-Man legacy characters.
- Self-Serving Memory: Played for drama; Mystique never abandoned Kurt, but lost him. To cope with this and live with Destiny, who orchestrated the whole thing, they had Charles erase their memory of exactly what happened. Mystique, who loved Kurt dearly, filled in the blanks by presuming that she could only have abandoned Kurt out of hate, rather than having no choice, an outcome Charles warned her was possible.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Silver Sable absolutely hates dealing with Orchis, but she and the Wild Pack has to as Orchis seemingly has more clout than God.
- Teleportation: Kurt uses his teleportation powers to great effect in stopping crime.
- That Man Is Dead: Combined with Insistent Terminology, when an Orchis scientist calls Toomes “Vulture”, he tells him not to call him that as the Vulture was nothing more than a lowly crook. Now he’s Director Vulture.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Orchis continues to be this, with the people Kurt saves praising them and Sable reluctantly having to work with them since going against them would look bad.
